


Ceased Clock

by Namidagoe



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, College Student Stiles, Editor Derek, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Misunderstandings, Sad, Sad Ending, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Soulmates, Writer Derek Hale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 18:19:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11385750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Namidagoe/pseuds/Namidagoe
Summary: It all began when the Martins' invented the Soul Clock, a device that allowed people to meet their "soulmate."It all trickled down into DNA compatibility and eventually all children would have to undergo surgery to get the item sewn into their left wrist. Though not everyone believes in the Soul Clock and not everyone is left with a happy ending.





	Ceased Clock

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sterekruinedme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sterekruinedme/gifts).



We’ve all heard of the day the Martins’ invented the Soul Clock. The Soul Clock is a device surgically placed into a person's wrist as soon as they’re old enough to undergo surgery without dying. The clock counts down until the moment the person comes face to face with their soulmate. It all trickles down into a person's DNA and the Martin family has always been one of the most intelligent in America. They realized the potential the product had and, of course, the money it would generate as well. It took a few years for the price to decrease enough for the average person to obtain one, but the day it did was the day the Martin’s became billionaires. They just never concluded that this device doesn’t always leave people with a fairytale ending. 

Stiles grew up obsessing over the fact that one day he would get to meet his soulmate. When Stiles first met Lydia he thought he’d marry her one day, he didn’t care that his Soul Clock hadn’t ran out of time yet or the fact that hers was cracked, the sign of a dead soulmate. He just wanted to be hers until middle school when he discovered that his love for her was simply him idolizing her. He spent a while exploring his interest and came to terms with the fact that he was bisexual.

Midway through high school, Stiles began to feel lonely. Scott had met his soulmate, Allison, in the Preserve on Valentine's day, something Scott brags about all the time and always while staring affectionately at Allison. They had gone to the Preserve because it's a very quiet and peaceful place to practice skills, Scott's being lacrosse and Allison's being archery. In Stiles’ opinion, they were just fucking weird dorks. Lydia first bumped into Jackson at a drive in movie and they both hit it off, what with Lydia’s dead soulmate and Jackson and Danny finding that they just can’t love each other in that way. Sometimes soulmates find that they’re better off friends. Danny was just loving the noncommitted life too much and wasn’t really concerned with finding someone. Stiles was tried though and he was tried so hard. In his Junior year on the first day of school he walked around and attempted to greet anyone he saw, but the time on his clock hadn’t yet changed. By the time Stiles was twenty he was still searching for his Soulmate, but not as pathetically desperate as before. He had moved from Beacon Hills, California to New York to attend the college of his dreams and to major in criminology for he desired to be a detective.

Derek grew up hearing his family worship the Martins for their discovery 20 years ago. He was hopeful and he would write poems based off of his “ideal” soulmate, one who is brave and loyal. Derek searched high and low for his destined but once he met Paige in eighth grade, he was done for. Paige didn’t believe in the Soul Clock and the more he fell for her, the less he believed in the clock. Once Paige moved way, Derek became detached and started to question his family's views. He was tired of the stories his family told him of how the stupid clock brought his parents together and how that when Laura, his sister, was eighteen he witnessed her meet Jake, her soulmate. It was disgustingly cute and hilarious at the same time, they met because he was a barista at the local coffee shop who accidentally spilt coffee on Laura. Derek didn’t care anymore, soulmates mattered to some people but not him. In retaliation of his families pestering to keep focused on finding the “love of his life”, he decided to date a beautiful older woman named Kate. That was pretty much a summer fling and by the end of the summer Kate was arrested for beating her soulmate to death, a soulmate Derek did not know she had. The incident made him hate soulmates, because they obviously are not healthy. By the time he was twenty six, he was working in New York as an editor for a famous writer who goes by Lahey. Derek found that he had a passion for writing poems and small stories, yet he was too shy to attempt to publish. The only people who had ever read his work was Lahey, Laura, and a kid with a comic book addiction whose name was Stiles.

One year ago Derek became pen pals, really it was through email though, with a spunky kid with the email ImBatmanBitch, which Derek later found that his name was Stiles. Stiles wasn’t impressed with Derek’s email due to ‘lack of creativity’. That was bullshit, it’s totally professional to go by DerekHale. Now, in the present, they texted and complained about each other's daily life. Derek knew Stiles lived in New York yet he had no idea where, and he had never even seen a photo of this guy. He made up his mind as he woke up that morning that he’d ask Stiles for a photo. Derek slipped his legs out from under his black, silk bed sheets and placed his feet on the slightly chilled, wooden floor of his apartment. He stood and stretched, his back muscles tightening and releasing beautifully. He padded over to his average sized kitchen and began to make himself his daily coffee with four sugar cubes and a lot of creamer. He made himself an omelet and sat down for breakfast at his wooden table. As he finished he snatched his phone out from the charger that was placed in his living room wall socket and texted Stiles with a simple, “Good morning.”

Derek knew that on his days off that Stiles would sleep in really late so Derek wasn’t really concerned with the lack of response at seven in the morning. As Derek looked down at Lahey’s manuscripts he felt happy and excited for the day ahead, which had him shocked. By one in the evening he began to feel hungry and so he decided to take drive to the local pizza joint. Once he was seated at a table his phone dinged with a response. 

“Morning :(“

Ah, that dork just now woke up? 

“You do realize it is already lunch time?” Derek snarked.

“Come on mannnnn, college succkkksss. Let me live my life to the fullest, which is sleeping until my body can’t sleep anymore”

“You’re being a baby.”

“Ughhhhh, Lydia is making me take her to the jewelers to get her engagement ring resized cause Jackson is an idiottt. I’m saddd”

“Why? At any other point in time you’d be happy to spend time with “the beautiful goddess” that is Lydia Martin.”

“Well not today because the only jewelers nearby is like an hour away”

“Poor you”  
“Ah, shove it grumpy pants. Hold on. I’ll text you once I’m at the jewelers cause Lydia just arrived and shes not happy with my apparel.”

“Alright, message you soon.”

Derek sighed, he was beginning to fall for Stiles even though they’d never met. He ate his meal and headed out to go hang with Erica at the park nearby when his phone dinged again.

“DUDE, Allison came along and they ditched me so I’m headed to this pizza place that’s said to be D E L I C I O U S.”

“Sounds like fun. Anyway, I was wondering if you’d send me a photo of you?” as soon as Derek hit send he began to feel anxious and after five minutes he was freaking out.

“I know this is a boundary that we both mutually decided not to cross and I’m sorry if I passed the line.”

“Der-bear it’s okay, I was just trying to cross the street. Damn, why is New York so busy?”

Derek let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and began to type when another message came through.

“ and I’d love to send a photo just let me get the right angle.”

Derek smiled at his quirky friend and then he felt heat pool up around his left wrist. As he looked down he noticed that the clock only had two minutes left. Derek blankly stared at his wrist, he was frozen. This was too soon. What is he to say to the man or woman? That he is in love with a kid he’s never met? He stood still on the sidewalk of a busy intersection, ten minutes away from the park. 

Stiles glazed longingly at his phone, he hoped that this Derek was his soulmate for his feelings for him were those of love. Yet he knew that there was a slim chance so he forced his feelings down into a deep part of his heart and willed it to never resurface, though it did with every text. He positioned his phone the way he pleased and snapped a very average photo of himself. He frowned in annoyance. Why is his nose so weird and eyes so huge? He ignored his insecurities as he typed back to Derek. 

“Is this the dashing face you had wished to receive???”

Yet before he hit send, he felt the heat rush down his arm and onto his left wrist, the clock was counting down with every step he took. Stiles started grinning and began to bounce on his feet. He started to run across the street to where he knew his soulmate was though he couldn’t tell who due to the huge crowd of people. As he ran his thumb pressed against the send button and suddenly Derek's phone dinged. Before Derek could glance down a gorgeous man in his early twenties with sculpted cheeks and bedroom hair began to run right towards him. The burning of his wrist intensified and he knew in that instant that his man was his soulmate, wearing an ugly “the sarcasm is strong with this one” sweater. Suddenly a porsche came within Derek’s peripheral vision and dread began to pool into his stomach. The porsche wasn’t slowing down. He tried to yell at the beautiful man but it was too late, the car ran straight into him. The force of the porsche sending his body flying and landing like a puppet with its strings cut. The scene was horrifying. Derek began screaming at the scene in front of him as his arm turned ice cold and the glass of the clock shattered. Derek didn’t care, all he cared about was getting to his soulmate. He figured that his soulmate was probably on the search for him and that it was his fault he died. Derek may not care for the idea of soulmates, but to imagine that this man died just to see him. It was too much for Derek. He decided in that moment that if his soulmate was still somewhat alive, the man may desire to be near Derek. He chose to at least hold his body once in his arms, he did such that. As his hands were covered in blood and the man’s head secured under Derek’s chin, Derek began to rock and sing for him. He sung a lullaby from his childhood. His soulmate started to open his heavy eyes and gaze blankly at Derek, His dull eyes slowly searched his face and his cracked lips parted. The male began to speak but before any words could form dark, clotted blood spilled from his lips painting his pale neck crimson. His eyes widened while panic and comprehension flashed through them. It was in this moment the man realized he was going to die in his soulmates arms. As a bystander called the ambulance and a man with blond hair and a tall build stepped out of the porsche. The blonde man started to shake and repeat a mantra of, “no, not him not him.” Until two women, one in red heels and another with long brown hair, came rushing from the same direction as the fallen man. As soon as their eyes surveyed the scenes they both started crying and the one in heels began screaming out a name, but her tear stained voice wasn’t legible. Derek began stroking his soulmates head while the girl in heels began punching the blonde man's chest. The bloodied man gripped at Derek's hand and tried to talk once more. When he failed he began to breathe deeply making his chest move rapidly. The action cause Derek’s traumatized eyes to peer down and what he found was not pretty. The chest had a gaping wound from the force of the impact that had torn down past his ribs, which were broken and few were close to piercing his lungs. Derek frantically began to shout at his soulmate to stop panicking for it was only making the wound worse but his demands were denied. In fact, it just caused him to be more frantic in his panicking which forced one of the rib shards to dig down into the lungs. Derek continued to rock him until he took his last breath. Once the paramedics arrived they removed the male from Derek’s hands and cuffed the blonde man. Derek sat against the wall of a nearby building and began to bawl. He just witnessed a murder, up until this point no body in his life had ever passed away, let alone passed away because of him. Derek killed this stranger. This man just wanted to meet his soulmate, though he would have turned him down because his heart belongs to Stiles, he would have accepted being this man's friend to spare him from the longing and disappointment. It was obvious this stranger was longing for someone by his side. It was Derek's fault. He should have yelled, he should've been paying closer attention. Derek began to vomit harshly at the sight of his blood stained hands and the scene he had the displeasure of witnessing,. Once he felt composed enough he stood up to go home and text Erica that he was canceling their plans, but once he unlocked the screen the face that stared back at him was chilling. Stiles’ message was open and his dead soulmates face glared mockingly back at him. His soulmate was Stiles and Stiles was dead. In that very moment he shut down and had the biggest panic attack of his life.

Derek would later find that the blond man's name was Jackson and he was on his way to join Lydia, red heels girl, and Allison, brown haired girl, at the pizza place where they were also going to meet Stiles. For weeks after the horrifying tragedy Derek would just sit and stare blankly at his bedroom wall. Why Stiles? Why kill Stiles when Derek was so incredibly in love with the man? Every time he opened his messages Stiles’ face would stare eerily back at him. Mocking him with what could have been and what they had together despite the fact that it was through text and that Derek was too shy to admit his feelings before he died. It didn’t matter anyway, Derek knew that Stiles didn’t love him. As the weeks went by, his boss began to worry for him and Lahey as well. Isaac, Lahey’s first name, attempted to help Derek out with the work load as much as he could but it still wasn’t enough. One day a knock came upon his door, Derek groaned and grunted as he fought the sheets to escape his bed, the only place he had been for weeks. When he opened the door he was greeted with an older man in a sheriff's uniform. Fear shot through Derek's body, did he do something wrong? Was he going to arrest him for aiding in Stiles’ death? The sheriff smiled forcefully and said to Derek, “My son Stiles would talk about you all the time. This mysterious man from New York who had captured his heart. He would cry himself to sleep most nights feeling ashamed because he had fallen for you and not his “unknown soulmate.” Funny how you two were actually destined for each other and yet never realized until it was too late,” the sheriff sighed and ran his wrinkled fingers through his grey hair, “Yet he kept telling himself he would wait for his soulmate. He was very determined to meet them and I guess his obsession was the ultimate cause of his death.” Tears began to flow from his eyes and Derek felt worse with every word. He reached out and carefully hugged the sheriff and cried with him, they cried for hours until they both passed out from exhaustion.Derek got accepted into the Stilinski family as his friends and family all mourned the loss of Stiles and the departure of Jackson, who will spend sixteen years in jail. Lydia blamed Jackson with every fiber in her being and constantly belittled him. Yet Allison could see that in her eyes and deep down Lydia still loved Jackson, hell they had all became attached to him after he stopped being a douche. Everyone knew that Jackson didn’t mean to do what he did, but it was too late to fix the past. He had to pay for his consequences and everyone had to come to terms with the way life would be from now on. Scott shut down and refused to talk to anyone except Allison and Stiles’ father. The majority of Derek’s family tried so hard to take care of him and the Sheriff after this tragedy, they felt no remorse for Jackson's sentence. There were few, such as his uncle Peter, who blamed him for his soulmates death, all he could do when confronted is agree. In the years to come Derek will learn many things about Stiles from his family and friends that he hadn’t learned in his one year with Stiles. Derek never found love again, though he did adopt a six year old boy from an orphanage, Boyd, who grew up learning the tale of Stiles Stilinski.


End file.
